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DCL
Here, in what may seem like the gazillionth post about how to celebrate Earth Day, are a few ideas for changes you can make in the technology and transport parts of your life that will make a real difference in your carbon footprint. You've heard some or all of them before, no doubt, but sometimes we need little reminders.
Bike more, drive less
Whether it's commuting to work, running errands, visiting friends—the more you substitute biking for driving, the more emissions (and money!) you'll save. You can use emeters to measure your carbon savings— and Google maps now has features to help cyclists out.
For every mile you bike instead of drive, you'll eliminate an average of .91 pounds of CO2 that would have been released by the vehicle (based on emissions of the average American car). The emeter awards the biker with "eco-point leaves," one leaf for every 4.3 kilometers cycled and 1 kilogram of carbon emissions saved (sorry, the device is made in Japan).
So let's say you have a 10 mile commute to work—biking will eliminate 9.1 pounds of CO2 from your carbon footprint each way. Plus, you'll save money on gas and get some great exercise—and probably improve your mood, too.
If you are going to drive, consider car sharing. And take steps that make driving more efficient—tapping lightly on the brakes, cutting down on the rapid accelerations, and don't idle your car. One study showed these steps yielded a ten percent decrease in total emissions. And if you happen to be in the market for a new car, try to make it a hybrid.
Electronics: Make them last longer, and when it's time, recycle your E-waste responsibly
Every new computer, phone, refrigerator, oven—any electronic gadget—uses minerals that have to be mined and whose disposal can be quite toxic—electronic waste represents two percent of the trash in U.S. landfills, yet produces 70 percent of the heavy metals found there. (Imagine what that ratio is in developing nations, where most of our e-waste is sent.) The fewer new gadgets we buy, the more we cut back on the resources consumed—and the often-toxic, sometimes conflict-related mining involved in producing them—and the fewer things we'll have to dispose of. The question should not be, "Which is the greenest gadget I can buy?" but rather, "How can I fix the things I already own?" Just as recycling is the third-best option in situations where you can reduce or reuse materials, repairing electronics is always a greener option than replacing them. Extending the life of your current computer, for example, will slash the consumption of energy and resources by more than 75 percent of what it takes to manufacture new computer models, a fact from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition cited in an older Planet Green post.
The average cell phone user buys a cell phone replacement every 14 to 16 months and the average American throws away 15 pounds of electronic waste a year. How about setting out goals to ensure you make the averages look like the poor stats that they are? Maybe deciding to keep your current phone for five to seven years, and your computer for seven or eight—and be sure that when you do discard your gadgets, you recycle them properly.
Know Your Energy Use
Monitoring your energy use at home can help you figure out where most of your energy is going, and can usually lead to an immediate 15 percent reduction in energy use.
The average computer creates about 497 pounds of carbon emissions a year—maybe for Earth Day, you can resolve to shut it down more often than you do. And unplug all your gadgets when you're not using them—phantom power often consume at least ten percent of a home's energy use.
Some of the simplest steps are the biggest savers: hanging your laundry to dry can save 60 pounds of carbon emissions a month. Turning your water heater down a meager 10 degrees can save 61 pounds, and a two-degree adjustment to your thermostat (down in winter, up in summer) can save 166 pounds every month. Easy steps like these can save you plenty of cash, too.
Measuring your home's energy hotspots with a energy monitor—sometimes available for borrowing at your local library—or a home energy audit are the most accurate ways to figuring out how best to lighten your load. But if you aren't ready to make those investments, you can trust that if you're diligent about it, steps like unplugging devices (even phone chargers), line-drying your laundry, adjusting the temperature settings on your thermostat, water heater, refrigerator and freezer, running your dishwasher only when it's completely full (or by hand, and using cold water) can reduce your energy consumption at home by up to 50 percent.
